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When I heard that the intro video for the HP Slate was out, I had to watch it. Then, just like the video said, I went to hp.com/slate to check it out. Then, when I woke up from the coma their boring ass site put me into, I started writing this post.

Seriously though people, look at the site. SO BORING.

Yes, that giant graphic is clickable, but does anything make you WANT to click it? Nope.

The boring text tells you the boring details about how you can get more info about the HP Slate. Email submission? Really?

Now, I’m not one to get all over a company for design aesthetics, but this page just made me thoroughly not excited about this product. If this is their idea of a page that is meant to drum up excitement about what quite honestly looks like it might be a great product, I think it fails.

Something like this lends itself perfectly to a great social media campaign prior to launch with videos (which they actually have, but they show up in a pop-up player only after you figure out the riddle of where to click) and great content/interaction. Instead, HP has a boring link to their general HP Twitter feed – no icon, nothing that makes you want to click.

I never try to criticize without offering suggestions and assistance, so here it goes:

Have a more-explicit call to action in the headline. Something like “Touch here to learn more about HP’s Slate”

Have a mouseover animation on the actual Slate where something changed to let the user know to actually click. As it is now, you can’t actually tell that’s a video launcher.

I’d also have the actual video play within the border of the Slate, so make it bigger and do that with options to go full screen, etc.

Also, lose that hand in the back, it looks weird. Why would someone touch the back of the device?

Loose the boring fonts, HP uses some cool, funky fonts. Use those.

Lose the boring e-mail submission fields

Use the space on the right to link out to social media sites (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter) by using icons, not a boring URL.

Make everything shareable – videos, the page, etc.

If HP wants to know more, they can contact me. I’m always willing to help out, but for now I see a potentially great product getting off to a lackluster start.

Like this:

After watching the pandemonium during yesterday’s iPad launch I have to admit, the last thing thought I’d be doing on Easter Sunday was going to the U Village Apple Store, but that’s exactly what I did.

So, for all those crazy a-holes who camped out to get their iPads – I win. You may have got your iPad 24 hours before me, but I spent my Saturday watching hoops on my cinch while you sat in a lawn chair in the cold with grown men wearing sweatpants.

Now, $500+ later I’m holding the supposedly “magical” iPad in my hands complete with my Pike Place photo as the wallpaper). Here are my initial thoughts:

In The Box
Apple didn’t go overboard here; iPad, cord, charging block (which is actually the old style). Of course you get the little info booklet and the Apple stickers.

Design
You can’t say Apple did anything “wrong” with the iPad’s looks, but they didn’t really “do” anything other than imagine a larger iPhone. That said, the device is incredible to hold. It’s light and fits my hands fairly well – not sure how an individual with smaller hands would fare.

Experience
It freaking turned right on. Not joking. The dude in the store made me defile my iPad right there in front of everyone, so that explains the lack of boring unboxing photos. The UI feels faster than that of my iPhone 3GS when it comes to opening apps. Swiping and pinch gestures also seem to be a but quicker, which is awesome.

Typing
Admittedly, this was one of the things I worried most about. I have big dumb fingers, but typing was fairly easy to pick up. In portrait mode, I’m actually able to type thumb-style, which is OK and actually more accurate than my full hand typing (for now).

Apps
Oh the apps. I’m actually in the process of downloading apps now, but I have got a couple on here already.

iBooks
I downloaded iBooks, since they suggest it at the beginning of your iPad journey and it seems pretty cool. They give you a free copy of Winnie the Pooh, which is cool and awkward at the same time. The UI in iBooks is great and very easy to read.

TweetDeck
I know there are “better” Twitter apps out there, but I really like TweetDeck and use it across all my screens (PC, iPhone, and now iPad). My only complaint here is that it’s not synching my columns, but that’s probably on the TweetDeck side.

Pages (from iWork)
I couldn’t justify buying the whole package, but if I’ve got my mail and whatnot on here, being able to create docs is important. I’ll play around with this a bit more.

WordPress
Well, here’s the twist, people, I’m using the WordPress app right now! Boom! It’s functional, like in the way that a wagon functions as a vehicle. It works… But it’s not pretty and it’s definitely not a car. It gets the job done, but pics and formatting aren’t even really functional.

Others

I also downloaded USA Today, The New York Times and Facebook. USA Today and NYT look great on the iPad and their usability is top notch. I’m hoping that Facebook gets an iPad app out shortly, because the experience is kinda ugly when you 2x the resolution.

Last Words
I don’t know if I like this thing yet. I guess that’ll come with time and better apps. For right now, it’s cool and I definitely don’t hate it. One thing: when you type on the iPad and then pick up your iPhone, it feels like it’s tiny.

More to come, I’m sure. I don’t know that many people (personally) who have picked up the iPad, but I’m sure that’ll change soon as I got a text from my friend Shauna as she was heading to the Apple store to pick hers up.

Like this:

I know we’ve all seen the iPad videos/commercials, but have you ever really listened to them? I’m guessing most people really haven’t since Jony Ive is still out roaming the streets and not locked up in some rubber room somewhere.

Magical? It’s a giant iPhone, you limey bastard, not the freaking Rosetta stone. You know what would’ve been magical? You could have listened to the millions of fanboys running around ready to shell out thousands of dollars (those are like your pounds, but less pretentious) for this thing and given it the full functionality it needs (cameras, USB, SD, etc.) instead of thinking how you were going to eff everyone in the A when you release iPad 2.0 in a year and make everyone buy a new one.

Also, am I the only one that thinks he looks stoned out of his gourd in this video?